The Importance Of Robin Lehner's Contract

Robin Lehner has been locked up!

The 23 year-old Swedish goaltender has inked a 3 year, 6.675 million dollar contract with the Ottawa Senators.

It was reported last week that both sides were close to a deal, agreeing on term, and over that time they came up with a number that worked for both sides. The breakdown of the deal is, $1.5 M in year one, $2.025 M in year two, and in the final year of the deal Lehner will receive $3.15 M.

Over the course of his young career Robin Lehner has played 61 games in parts of four seasons with the big club, earning 21 wins, a .918 save percentage, and a 2.82 goals against average. Though Robin Lehner is young, he has accomplished quite a bit and has shown enough promise to be praised as the future starter of the Ottawa Senators, and the future might be closer than you would think. With Craig Anderson heading into the final year of his contract this will be Lehner’s time to prove he can take the reins, and he might be able to do so this year. Healthy competition is always a good thing and there is still a possibility Anderson remains with the team beyond this season. I believe that Lehner will get a fair chance to be the starter this year after both himself and Craig Anderson had down years, as it usually goes, whoever plays the best will get the most playing time.

Really happy to be in Ottawa for 3 more years! Me and my wife are really exited to call it our home. ;)
— Robin Lehner (@RobinLehner) July 31, 2014

The Importance Of Robin Lehner’s Contract

Overall this is a great contract. The Ottawa Senators have set up something similar with Robin Lehner as they did for Kyle Turris, in a sense. The Senators have constructed a contract with low dollars and a decent term for a player who can be successful and have an impact night in and night out.

Something to note about this deal is that it gives a year of breathing room for the Ottawa Senators, the contract was made in such a way that once the deal is up Lehner will still be classified as a restricted free agent. This will prevent the possibility of Robin walking for huge dollars on the open market, if indeed he continues his progress. If a team puts in an offer sheet for Robin Lehner once the deal is up the Senators won’t lose him for nothing. If an offer sheet is made and the Ottawa Senators choose not to match, the team will receive compensation in the form of draft picks. This creates some insurance case the Senators can’t come to agreement once the contract is up. In my opinion if Robin continues to progress and forms into the starter we all believe he is going to be, he will be around for a long time.